A Quick PSA About Email Etiquette

Most people have the habit, when sending an email to multiple recipients, of directly addressing the message to each person. What I mean is, the sender will type each recipient’s email address in the “To:” field (or, if being sent by a savvy user, the “CC:” field). I completely understand this, and it makes perfect sense if everyone knows each other.

There may, however, be times when you need to send a message to multiple users who may or may not be complete strangers. This presents a problem. Using the method above, everyone can see everyone else’s email address and many don’t want their addresses falling into the hands of people they don’t know and/or trust. This may be simple paranoia, or it may reflect their reluctance to have their address scraped from the ‘Recent Recipients’ list of a malware-ridden PC.

The good news? There is hope.

It seems unintuitive, but there is a way to send a message to multiple users without broadcasting email addresses. It is called (insert drumroll) the “BCC:” field. “BCC” stands for “Blind Carbon Copy”, and any addresses entered into the BCC field will not be visible to any other recipient. The counterintuitive part, and the reason I think many people don’t think to do this, is that you don’t need to put any addresses in the “To:” field. The message will still be sent.

My wish – indeed, I’m literally begging here – is that you please, pretty-please, get into the habit of using the BCC field when sending to large groups of possible strangers. Or paranoiacs. Thank you.

I am A Jolly Nerd, and I approve this message.